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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23183302">Head to Heart: Blue</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/muchlessvermillion/pseuds/muchlessvermillion'>muchlessvermillion</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>We Are for Each Other [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(Except for Henry), Affection, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, As in some of them are currently in college but they didn't meet there or anything, Chinese Food, Cuddling &amp; Snuggling, Cunnilingus, F/M, Hair-pulling, Headaches &amp; Migraines, Hurt/Comfort, In the most literal sense of the term, Kissing, Living Together, M/M, Magic, Magically being alive when you were previously a ghost, Multi, Oral Sex, Orgasm as a pain relief method, Polyamory, Post-Canon, a little bit of voyeurism, taking care of each other</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 16:15:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,287</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23183302</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/muchlessvermillion/pseuds/muchlessvermillion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Blue woke up she was alone in her bed (not uncommon; they had five for a reason), and her temples felt like someone had taken an axe to them (less common than sleeping alone, but still more so than she’d like). Even the slivers of light coming through the blinds felt like too much. </p><p>She squeezed her eyes shut, and took a quick inventory.</p><p>It was Friday. Her alarm hadn’t gone off, so it was before nine. She didn’t have class this morning, but she did have a shift at the craft store, and Adam and Gansey wouldn’t be home unless something had gotten cancelled. Noah maybe was, but his relationship with electricity was contentious and they hadn’t yet figured out a fix. </p><p>Fuck. </p><p>----</p><p>Blue has a migraine. Her boys all take care of her, in their own ways.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adam Parrish/Blue Sargent, As this is Blue's part of the series I'd ordinarily just tag for the polycule and her relationships, Because I like the tags to reflect the content even though they are all dating, But several of the boys kiss or make out with each other in this which seemed worth tagging for, Noah Czerny/Adam Parrish, Noah Czerny/Blue Sargent, Noah Czerny/Richard Gansey III/Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish/Blue Sargent, Noah Czerny/Ronan Lynch, Richard Gansey III/Blue Sargent, Richard Gansey III/Ronan Lynch, Ronan Lynch &amp; Blue Sargent</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>We Are for Each Other [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1666660</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>165</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Head to Heart: Blue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello! This is the first part of a six or seven part series about the gangsey polycule taking care of each other in different situations. It was actually the first fic I'd ever conceptualized for this series, after I'd read The Dream Thieves and long before The Raven King came out, which is why Henry is just mentioned in this one: it had already been pretty fully planned out and outlined in my head before we knew how important he was, and I'd been thinking about it so long that I had a hard time shifting the scenes I'd already had in there to include him. But I LOVE Henry and would absolutely hate to leave him out, so now that he IS here my plan is for him to slowly become more and more present throughout the series until he's a part of the relationship as well and gets his own section in the series! So you can look forward to that.</p><p>(This is also why it's diverging from canon: we had no idea how it was going to end yet. And I am fine with this!)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="p1">When Blue woke up she was alone in her bed (not uncommon; they had five for a reason) and her temples felt like someone had taken an axe to them (less common than sleeping alone, but still more so than she’d like). Even the slivers of light coming through the blinds felt like too much.</p><p class="p1">She squeezed her eyes shut, and took a quick inventory.</p><p class="p1">It was Friday. Her alarm hadn’t gone off, so it was before nine. She didn’t have class this morning, but she <em>did</em> have a shift at the craft store, and Adam and Gansey wouldn’t be home unless something had gotten cancelled. Noah <em>maybe</em> was, but his relationship with electricity was contentious and they hadn’t yet figured out a fix.</p><p class="p1">Fuck.</p><p class="p1">Usually when Blue got a migraine on a day when she had to work, it went like this: one of her boys, whoever was home, would call in and inform the manager that this was Blue Sargent’s boyfriend, and she couldn’t make it. It was usually Adam or Gansey, and, on one memorable occasion, Noah — but he’d had too much energy in him at the time and had entirely shorted out her phone immediately afterwards, so they tried to avoid that whenever they could.</p><p class="p1">The store she worked at was small, owned by a nice older couple who didn’t mind giving special dispensation for her occasional headaches, especially because she only worked for them part-time, and largely did backroom organizational and unloading jobs that didn’t have anything to do with the customers. Her coworkers either didn’t notice or were too polite to mention that ‘Blue Sargent’s boyfriend’ had a voice that kept changing. When she had class on a headache day she could just email her professors herself when she felt better, and find any assignments she’d missed on the syllabus — she had accommodations for that. But emailing later didn’t find someone to cover her shift at the store if that was needed, or give enough forewarning.</p><p class="p1">And Adam and Gansey were out right now. There was nothing for it.</p><p class="p1">Blue groped across the night table for her phone with her eyes closed. When she managed to grasp its scratched metal back she opened one eye at a squint, so she could see just well enough to hopefully unlock it and scroll to the right contact.</p><p class="p1">Her head was <em>splitting</em>, the phone screen bright like staring into the sun, and her eyes were already watering by the time she had entered her passcode. Her hands were shaky before she had even hit the contacts button. It was like the ache had splintered from her temples to her eyestalks, the whole of the messy black behind her forehead.</p><p class="p1">A large, warm hand came down over her eyeballs, pulling them back into blessed dark.</p><p class="p1">“The fuck you think you’re doing?” Ronan asked, flat.</p><p class="p1">“Migraine,” Blue responded, and she wasn’t quite able to keep a whine out of her tone.</p><p class="p1">“Yeah,” Ronan said. “I kind of figured, seeing as you’re sitting in the dark with a pillow on half your face. But what are you <em>doing</em>? I know you can’t deal with lights when you’re like this.”</p><p class="p1">“I have to call in,” she mumbled, even though she wanted nothing less than to have to spend more time squinting into the center of an exploding star.</p><p class="p1">“Like hell,” Ronan said.</p><p class="p1">“I mean, I <em>do</em>. I’ve got a shift in less than an hour, and I’m not gonna make it. Adam and Gansey aren’t here.”</p><p class="p1">“I’m here,” said Ronan, and she could hear him frowning. It took her a moment to process what he was saying, and then her eyebrows drew together, uninhibited by him serving as a one-man eye mask.</p><p class="p1">“Dude,” Blue said. “You don’t even like to <em>hold</em> your phone. Not unless it’s an emergency or someone’s traveling.”</p><p class="p1">“Give it,” Ronan insisted, and she felt him wiggle his fingers next to the hand that held her cell.</p><p class="p1">She gave it. After a moment of Ronan’s slightly confused grumbling, she heard it ring, too loud in the echo chamber of her brain.</p><p class="p1">“Hey,” Ronan said into the phone, when someone had picked up. Angela, Blue thought — this was usually her shift. “This is Blue Sargent’s boyfriend’s boyfriend. Headache. Can’t come in today. Bye.”</p><p class="p1">Blue choked on a laugh, even though her head was now pounding out a death metal drum solo. <em>That</em> was going to be interesting to explain, if anyone was brave enough to ask. They probably wouldn’t be. It was almost a shame.</p><p class="p1">“Thanks,” she said, when she was sure he had hung up, genuinely grateful, weirdly touched for an act that technically amounted to maybe two button presses and a handful of words. He grunted noncommittally in response.</p><p class="p1">“I’ll get you a glass of water and leave you to your rotting.” He paused. “Water and Noah.”</p><p class="p1">“Oh my god,” Blue said. “<em>Please</em>.”</p><p class="p1"> </p><p class="p1">When Ronan came back, it was indeed with a cold glass of water and their colder boyfriend. Noah may have been alive and growing now, thanks to his own bones in a pouch he wore around his neck, a little ley line magic, and consistently drawing bits of excess energy from all four of the others, but he was still chilly more often than not. It felt more like bad circulation than a gravestone, these days, but still supernatural — he could press up against heated, flushed skin for ages and not get much warmer. They all knew that firsthand.</p><p class="p1">Blue sat up to gulp the water and the pair of pills Ronan pressed into her hands, her eyes shut tight again, because the risk of spilling down her front wasn’t as bad as the thought of having to see. While she was doing that, Noah crawled between her back and the headboard, maneuvering so her head was in his lap when she laid back down. He pressed his chilly fingers to her temples, making little cooing noises that didn’t mean anything.</p><p class="p1">“Thanks,” she said, to both of them, feeling utterly pathetic.</p><p class="p1">“Yeah,” Ronan said, ruffling her hair — and, from the sound of it, Noah’s, simultaneously. “No problem, maggot.” There was the noise of him kissing Noah above her head, quick, and then he retreated, probably back to his own room.</p><p class="p1">“I don’t mind,” Noah said, keeping his voice soft. “I like holding you.”</p><p class="p1">“I feel a little bad,” Blue admitted. “Using you as an ice pack.”</p><p class="p1">“I use you as a charging station,” Noah pointed out. “I’m trying really hard not to do it right now. Because it wouldn’t help. It’s a fair trade.”</p><p class="p1">She snorted, nudged her head against his stomach, and attempted to fall back asleep.</p><p class="p2"> </p><p class="p1">Psychic overload, her mom had always said. That was the theory she had, at least. Like a battery, Blue could get drained, overtaxed, which they knew even without the pain — but unlike a battery, she had nerve endings, and she sometimes got these headaches even when nothing had happened to cause them. If this was psychic overload, she was either paying for something that hadn’t happened yet, or something that had happened so long ago she’d forgotten it.</p><p class="p1">Either option seemed unfair. The remaining answer —that this just happened to her because it did, despite no apparent medical cause and a lack of consistent triggers— seemed even less fair.</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> It wasn’t as if Blue didn’t know life wasn’t fair, considering that was a lesson most kids got in kindergarten, but it pissed her the hell off sometimes anyway.</span>
</p><p class="p4"> </p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> She dozed fitfully and with no real sense of passing time, turning over every so often to stick her overheated face against the curve of Noah’s bony knee. The longest she sat up was to drink from the glass of water on the nightstand, which had been mysteriously refilled since she’d last done so. She didn’t eat. If she ate anything, even if she could muster a sense of hunger through the pain, it’d probably come right back up. Nausea sat heavy in her gut, and would likely stay there until the hurt receded. It went hand-in-hand with the migraines. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> When Blue woke next the pain had faded to a dull throb but was decidedly not gone, and Adam was climbing under the covers next to her. Noah’s cold fingers were still pressed into her brow on one side. When he noticed her stirring, he stuck the phone in his hand under his butt, freeing him up to caress her with both hands at once. If Adam was home, hours had passed, which meant either Noah had slipped out from under her and gotten back into position without waking her, or Ronan had been bringing him food and water throughout the day and he’d just been avoiding getting up to pee. Either option made Blue feel terribly fond.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “Hey,” she said, voice hoarse from sleep.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “Hey,” Adam replied, reverentially quiet. He slung an arm around her waist, his warm skin a counterpoint to Noah’s cool touch, and pressed a brief kiss to her mouth. “How’re you feelin’?” His accent was leaking in that way Blue knew meant he was tired, like it was stretching out in the safety of home. The difference between them was that she never tried to squelch hers.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> She considered this question for a long moment before answering.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “Better than it could be,” she decided, finally.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “Yikes,” Adam replied, half a laugh. “That bad?”</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “I’m survivin’,” she answered, a smile tugging at her mouth. “I took something, but it didn’t really help as much as I’d like. Which, you know. It happens.” It did. Whether or not Blue’s pain meds did anything for her migraines was essentially a game of roulette. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> Adam chewed his lower lip, his face gone considering in her peripheral vision. She was pretty sure what he was going to ask before he even spoke, from experience with that same expression.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “Think it would help if...” he trailed off, inclining his head like she’d know what it meant, bumping his forehead into the bare skin of her neck.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> Luckily, she did know. Her heart kicked up, placebo relief surging for just a moment.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “It might,” she admitted. “Only if you want to, though.” He huffed in response, rolling his eyes, and tugged at the hem of her boxers.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “Endorphin rush from an orgasm helpin’ headaches is scientifically proven,” he recited, in what they liked to call his professor voice.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “And you like giving head,” Blue teased, even as her eyes fell shut and she tipped her head back further into the cradle of Noah’s crossed legs, even as Adam pulled her boxers the rest of the way down her legs and ducked under the thin sheet. The comforter had been kicked down to the end of the bed at some point during the day.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “That too,” Adam admitted, slightly muffled, and wiggled his way between her parted thighs. She released one long, anticipatory breath. Noah was combing his fingers through her hair with incredible gentleness. Adam pressed a kiss to her rounded hipbone, just barely grazing with his teeth, and then again to the skin of her inner thigh, to the stretch above her knee. One of his hands curved over her calf, petting sweetly at her leg hair. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> She wound her fingers into Adam’s hair, close to the scalp, where he liked it, and tilted her head back to look at Noah. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “He’s going slow,” Noah guessed, sympathetic. He stroked a finger over the curve of one of her dark eyebrows, stopping to tap at the piercing that split it. “That’s probably good, since there hasn’t been any foreplay. But I bet it’s annoying. Maybe you should pull his hair.” </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “You’re just saying that because you can’t reach,” Blue retorted, but did pull Adam’s hair. The responding hum he muffled into her thigh was amused and turned-on all at once. It didn’t seem to spur him into acting any faster, but she hadn’t really thought it would — that wasn’t what this was about. It wasn’t about control, or someone being in charge, or even drawing it out and teasing. He’d do as much beforehand as he felt was needed, touch her and kiss her until she was wet enough for a finger or two, and then go down on her until she came and her body flooded with hormones that washed the pain away for a time. He’d done it before. He’d do it again. This <em>was</em> sex, but it wasn’t <em>about </em>sex, not really — it was about relief. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> And Blue <em>could</em> masturbate, instead, but this was more fun for both of them. For all of them. It wasn’t as if Noah didn’t like seeing it happen.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> Adam scraped his teeth over the curve of Blue’s belly, just above the curly thatch of her pubic hair, and she squeezed her knees around him, encouraging. Her eyes had drifted closed again, as he pressed hot kisses to her skin, left the beginning bloom of a hickey on her hip. One of her hands was in Adam’s hair and the other was tangled with Noah’s and all there really was to do was wrap her legs around Adam and trust that he’d get there. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> Whatever signal Adam had been waiting for, he’d found it, because the next thing she felt was his mouth on her clit, his tongue pressing at the good edge of too-hard. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> Blue squeaked, and tightened all over, and rolled her hips up to meet him, and he petted at her thigh and her side until she relaxed again. The gesture said <em>wait</em> and <em>just let me</em> and <em>this will work better if you’re not fucking up your muscles during it</em> — she knew because he’d said all that aloud, before.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> So she waited. And she let him. And Adam sucked her clit between his lips, careful as he could, and licked, pushed a single finger up into her and stroked in direct counterpoint. Blue bit down on her own lower lip and tried hard to keep her muscles relaxed and her hips still. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “Hey,” Noah whispered, and thumbed at her mouth until she stopped biting it. Blue turned her hazy eyes on him with her mouth half-open and panting, not particularly noisy but feeling Adam’s single-focused attention to her bones. Noah responded with a brilliant smile, and tucked his thumb against the corner of her lips with something like reverence. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “Hi,” she replied, voice gone raspy, and gasped when Adam pressed another finger into her alongside the first. His tongue was flicking against her fast, with the sole goal of making her come as quickly as possible. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> (She knew for a fact that sometimes he liked to spell things out with it, a guaranteed way of keeping things varied. Once they’d prodded him into admitting that he’d sometimes done vocab words for his pre-law class, and it had taken months for him to even slightly live it down.) </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> Blue shut her eyes again, fingers squeezing the hell out of Noah’s hand and legs tight around Adam, the hand in his hair pushing him down against her without even really meaning to. It only served to urge him on, until Blue’s hips were hitching and her body went taut again, and then she was breaking open under his clever mouth and steady fingers, with Noah’s hand in her hair and her head in his lap and her mind going blank.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> The pain receded like a wave pulling from the shore, replaced by lit-up nerve endings and chemicals flooding her system.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> When Blue was able to open her eyes again, Noah had pulled the sheet down over Adam’s head, and he was propped up between her legs with his two wet fingers in his mouth, sucking them clean. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> When Adam saw her looking, he pushed himself up, cheeks pink and lips wet, and wiped his mouth on the back of his arm. Then he gave her a grin so cheeky and self-satisfied she felt it in her curling toes. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “Thank you,” she murmured, always a little soft in the direct aftermath. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “My pleasure,” Adam replied, and leaned up to drop a smooch to her collarbone. “Better?” he asked, his voice smug in a way that meant he already knew the answer. She batted drowsily at his face in retaliation. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “No point in telling you if you already know,” she muttered, and he laughed. “I ain’t feedin’ your ego for no reason.”</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> Noah was making grabby hands at Adam over Blue’s head, and after taking a moment to catch his breath, he obliged. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> Noah really liked kissing. He had never made any secret of that. He could kiss for hours without doing anything else and never once complain. The way he kissed Adam followed that same pattern; lush and indulgent, one of his hands petting along the column of Adam’s neck, making little noises of encouragement in the back of his throat every couple of seconds. Adam responded in kind, content to let Noah set a lazy pace. His knees were planted on either side of Blue’s torso, and they leaned over her like an arch — one of those famous ones in Paris or Rome that people took photos in front of. Blue let herself drift while they kissed for a long minute, slow and deep, and then Adam pulled away, carding a hand through Noah’s hair as he went.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “I’m gonna go clean myself up,” Adam said, which was probably mostly true, but would probably also involve jacking off. “Gansey’s bringin’ dinner home. Want me to holler for you when it’s ready, if you’re out again?”</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “Yeah,” Blue replied, sated and comfortable and bordering on another crest of sleep.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “I’m gonna go with him,” Noah said, pushing gently at the back of her head so he could squirm out from underneath. “I REALLY have to pee.”</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “Have you <em>not</em>?” Blue demanded, surprised even though she’d half-suspected. No matter how many times they all did things like that, it somehow still caught her off-guard once in a while to be loved that way, so demonstratively. </span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “I didn’t want to move you! You looked too peaceful,” Noah whined. “Like a kitten.”</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “Or a dragon on its hoard,” Adam offered.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “I like that one more,” Blue said.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “‘Course you do,” Adam replied, and she didn’t have to see his smile to hear it in his voice.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “Shoo,” Blue said, turning over to grin into her pillowcase. She yanked at the comforter until it reached all the way to the fluffy tufts of her hair. “Go get clean.”</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> There were footsteps, and then door closed behind Adam and Noah, the sound soft. Through it, clear as day, she heard Noah speak.</span>
</p><p class="p3">
  <span class="s1"> “I could, uh, help you with the… <em>cleaning up</em>, if you wanted,” he said, and Blue snorted at the unsubtle mischief in his voice. “After I pee, though.” </span>
</p><p class="p6">“Well by all means, don’t let me keep you from your bladder,” Adam responded.</p><p class="p6">“I mean, you could come with, if it wouldn’t kill your boner too bad,” Noah said, giggling through it. “It’ll only take a second.”</p><p class="p6">“I was <em>goin’ </em>to the bathroom to clean up,” Adam said. “But I don’t really want to watch you piss.”</p><p class="p6">Blue closed her eyes the rest of the way, the lingering throb in her skull receding into the dark.</p><p class="p5"> </p><p class="p6">When she resurfaced, her mouth was dry and her toes chilly in the cool dark of her bedroom, but the pain in her head had all but vanished, leaving her feeling strangely empty. Adam was in the doorway, his hand still raised from the knock that had roused her.</p><p class="p6">“Gansey’s home,” he said. “With Chinese. You up for it?”</p><p class="p6">Blue swallowed, propped herself up against her pillows, and found she was ravenous. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood with a degree of caution, relieved when her legs held.</p><p class="p6">“I think I’m starving, actually,” she said, and headed out into the lit hallway for the first time that day, still in her black tank top and boxers with dinosaurs on them. The light was a little harsh, but harsh like something to get used to, rather than a jackhammer to the skull. Adam snorted at the palm-tree spread of her messy hair, and led the way into their living room.</p><p class="p6">“Not eatin’ all day will do that,” he said as they went.</p><p class="p6">“Like you’re one to talk,” Blue shot back, nudging him with her shoulder.</p><p class="p5"> </p><p class="p6">In the living room, a feast’s worth of styrofoam containers were spread across the coffee table, and Gansey was set up in an armchair with Ronan sideways in his lap, both arms hooked around Gansey’s neck and both legs propped up on an armrest, like an overgrown lapdog. He was, at that very moment, kissing the hell out of him.</p><p class="p6">“That didn’t take long,” said Blue, as she popped the top on one of the containers to examine its contents.</p><p class="p6">“Fuck off,” Ronan said, tilting his head back to glare at her. “I used a phone for you today, you don’t get to say shit.”</p><p class="p6">“Jane!” Gansey chimed, from behind Ronan. “How’s your head? I brought dumplings.” Blue abandoned her food sleuthing to skirt the coffee table and press an affectionate kiss to his mouth, which he returned happily.</p><p class="p6">Ronan pantomimed gagging from his place still in Gansey’s lap, as if his tongue hadn’t just been down his throat.</p><p class="p6">“It’s better,” Blue said, when she pulled back. “Did you get the shrimp ones?”</p><p class="p6">“Would I fail you so immensely as to not get the shrimp ones? Honestly, Blue.” Gansey gestured towards the bounty of Chinese takeout like a king showing his son all that he would someday inherit. “Two orders. And those taro cakes Adam likes.”</p><p class="p6">“God bless you,” Adam said, already attempting to pry a sticky pork bun from a box, massacring it in the process. “How was class?”</p><p class="p6">Adam always liked to know how class had gone. He absorbed excess knowledge via every single one of his partners that were in school, like a sponge, until he could rattle off facts that had been brought up in Blue’s cinema class two semesters ago, or pull a date out of thin air that he’d only learned by editing one of Gansey’s obscure history essays.</p><p class="p6">Blue claimed a spot on the couch, and reached for a square container of shrimp dumplings.</p><p class="p6">“Splendid,” Gansey answered, fully sincere. “We started a paired project today in my Pre-1800s Lit class —don’t make that face, Adam, not everyone hates them as much as you do— and I got put with this classmate of mine, Henry.“</p><p class="p6">“Yeah, Gansey, it’s a class project, you would be paired with a classmate,” Adam put in. Gansey soldiered determinedly on, used to this kind of sniping back and forth.</p><p class="p6">“And he’s sort of fascinating, actually. All his stories sound like they couldn’t have possibly happened to a real person, and yet he usually has something to back them up. He’s lived the life of a protagonist in a bad airport thriller.”</p><p class="p6">“Maybe he is,” Noah suggested, and most of the room jumped. He was cross-legged on the floor, and Blue couldn’t say for certain how long he’d been there. He wasn’t intangible anymore, couldn’t fade in and out like the picture on a broken TV, but his time dead had left him weirdly stealthy. “A protagonist in a bad airport thriller, I mean. Maybe they’re based on him. Or maybe he read one when he was like, ten, and made the life-changing decision to emulate them. I think that’d be cool.”</p><p class="p6">“In what dimension would that be <em>cool</em>?” Ronan asked, through a mouthful of food. He had gotten a carton of noodles without getting up, though Blue wasn’t sure how, and he had his head tilted back so he could dangle them over his open mouth like he was feeding a baby bird. Blue wondered if Chainsaw was about to stop shredding the recycling across the room and steal his food out of jealousy.</p><p class="p6">“This one,” Noah insisted. “Those characters live crazy lives. And jump out of planes.”</p><p class="p6">“Do you want to jump out of a plane?” Blue asked, bemused. Noah gave a theatrical shudder.</p><p class="p6">“Oh, no way! I’d definitely die again. Like, for real, maybe, I have no idea how ley line magic works when you’re skydiving. And it’s scary. But it does <em>sound</em> cool. Like, hypothetically.”</p><p class="p6">“I kind of wanna jump out of a plane,” Ronan mused.</p><p class="p6">“Of course you do,” Gansey said, very fond. “It’s horribly dangerous and you’re a monstrous adrenaline junkie.” Ronan nudged Gansey’s shoulder with his head in response, like a cat asking for attention. Gansey, as always, was happy to provide.</p><p class="p6">“I think I’d try it,” Blue said. She squirted a packet of sauce into the lid of her styrofoam, and dunked a dumpling in the resulting puddle. “Once, at least. I don’t like heights, but it’s worth doing. Maybe I’d like it.”</p><p class="p6">“Sure you would. I’m sure you’d really appreciate being taller than someone for once, maggot,” Ronan said, ignoring Blue flipping him off, and then; “Czerny, that <em>better</em> not be all the fucking black bean short ribs.”</p><p class="p6">“Karma,” Noah laughed through a mouthful.</p><p class="p6">“Like hell,” Ronan protested, finally scrambling up from his prized place on Gansey’s lap. “You had them before I said <em>shit</em> to Sargent, give me those.”</p><p class="p6">As Ronan and Noah devolved into scuffling on the floor, and Gansey watched from his armchair like an emperor demanding gladiatorial combat, Adam pressed his warm shoulder into Blue’s, glancing at her like a question.</p><p class="p6">“It’s better,” she told him, again, unable to keep from smiling. “I feel good.”</p><p class="p6">“Ow!” Noah yelped, wounded-puppy theatrical, and Blue laughed.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading what is probably the most self-indulgent thing I've ever written (so far).</p></blockquote></div></div>
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